How to Drive a Tractor

Video Transcript

"Ok, now, we want to start with just basic operation, and maneuvering the tractor, and you'll hear me say this a lot. We're going to buckle our seatbelt first, and then we'll get the tractor started in neutral. Clutch depressed, brake pedal depressed. Start it up. I'm going to release my parking brake, there. With the clutch pedal fully depressed, I'm going to flip the tractor in to gear, and we'll start with a fairly low gear, right there, and hands on the wheel, and you just want to let off on the clutch very slowly, and it's really much easier than driving a car, but very similar. Steer to the right. Press your clutch pedal down, to stop the tractor. Now, it's important that you leave your foot off of the clutch pedal, when you're driving the tractor. You don't want to try and modulate your speed, by pressing the clutch pedal partway down. It's easy to do it. It's a very common mistake, and it leads to very rapid wear of your clutch, so when you're driving, your foot is completely off the clutch. When you're shifting gears, you're depressing the clutch pedal completely. Now, we're going to shift it into reverse. It went into gear really easily just then, but sometimes your gears don't line up, and it doesn't want to go into gear. You don't want to beat on the lever, because you risk damaging components in your transmission. What you want to do in a case like that, is apply a little pressure in the direction you want to shift the lever, and then very slowly, let off the clutch pedal just a little bit, and those gears will start to turn and align, and that pedal. The lever will drop right into place. Ok, so now we're in reverse. I'm going to check my clearance back here. Make sure I'm not going to run over anything. Let off on that clutch all the way, and again to stop, you got to push that clutch pedal down. These tractors have a lot of tort. You can apply the brake pedal, and the tractor may keep going, because you have to press that clutch pedal down, so the engine is not driving you forward. To shut the tractor off, we'll make sure we're in neutral. We'll set that parking brake. We're going to lower our implement to the ground, and then in the case of this tractor. We'll shut it down, by simply closing the throttle, and then turning the key off, to turn off the electrical system, and it's that simple."